The Road by Cormac McCarthy is one of those powerful stories that stays in your memory for a long time. It is the story of a father and son on a dangerous journey through a bleak post-apocalyptic landscape. Their’s is a stark and hopeless world where survival is sustained by the love at the heart of their relationship. The Road is personal and intense. Father and son communicate through simple language. “Okay?” they ask. “Okay”, the response – again and again, like a Greek chorus. They are “each other’s world entire”, their quest a search for the good. The tale is tragic, primal in the same kind of way that Shakespeare’s King Lear is primal. McCarthy writes beautifully and his language is rich with poetry. Essentially a simple tale, The Road is an easy read. It is also one of the finest contemporary literary novels I have come across. A compelling read, it drew me in from the first page and carried me all the way through to the end. It left me in tears – which is not to say that there is not a suggestion of hope at the conclusion. I read it cover to cover in a day and have no hesitation in recommending it to you.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Powerful, poetic and moving, The Road by Cormac McCarthy will surely be regarded as one of the finest contemporary literary novels.